Development of a Research Method to Measure Insoluble and Soluble Starch in Sugarcane Factory and Refinery Products

摘要

A rapid, quantitative research method using microwave-assisted probe ultrasonication was developed to facilitate the determination of total insoluble, and soluble starch in various sugar factory and refinery products. Several variables that affect starch solubilization were evaluated: 1) conductive boiling time, 2) microwave boiling time, 3) probe ultrasonication time, 4) water loss, 5) concentration, 6) sample color, and 7) sample. The optimized method solubilizes ＜40,000 ppm (or 267, 000 ppm/Brix) insoluble starch with microwave-assisted sonication in 6 min, has acceptable precision (＜6% CV), accuracy (≥95%), uses a corn starch reference, and incorporates a color blank to remove contribution from natural colorants found in industrial samples. This method was validated on factory and refinery samples, mixed juices (2% CV), massecuites (4%), molasses (7%), and raw sugars (12%); 100% satisfactory performance z-scores were also obtained. Total starch values obtained with this method were significantly higher than those measured with other methods commonly used by the sugar industry. The method also had the added benefit of allowing the determination of soluble and insoluble starch which is a great advantage to the sugar industry.